What is your opinion of the foreigner who leave Japan straight after the tsunami?
 

The foreigner flood the airport and everyone want to leave japan as soon as possible

what is ur opinion of them?

They left me wondering... are they leaving because they got orders from their masters (their governments) to return to their base (Country), or were they just scared and just left ?

most interviewed are scared of the radiation

I don't think I'm in a position to judge how others act out of fear.

My opinion changes depending on where they lived. Someone in Fukushima or Iwate leaving in a panic is one thing... Someone in Fukuoka leaving in a panic is another.
I heard tales of people in Okinawa getting scared and leaving because it is still "Japan".

do u welcome them if they go back japan?

i remember they flooded the japan airport..

while the japanese pple are trying to rescue their pple, these guys are trying to get out of japan in just 1 time

Heh I know plenty of people in california that panicked.

Those who left because their lives were seriously affected by the incident (e.g. losing their homes, jobs, schools, etc.), I wholeheartedly welcome back.

Those who left just because everyone else left, I do not welcome back, period.

okay good....

okay good....

It's worth mentioning that a number of people were -made- to leave, even though they did not want to and otherwise had not intended to. I know a number of exchange students who were in Nagoya and Kansai at the time who were sent home because the university decided to end their programme early.

I think it's weak for most people to just leave. However as Nyororin said, if they lived around Fukushima, that's something else.

depends on the reason, but usually they re too weak and get chewed up by the system.

you guys forgive them?

In the stories of those who up and left, there have been a few that have stunned me.

There was a woman living in Osaka who left, leaving her children at daycare and school, in a complete panic... She "forgot" her children completely, and gave no notification to anyone that she was leaving. Of course, once back in the UK, she contacted her (rightfully panicked) husband and told him to send the kids ASAP.

They are now involved in a divorce and she is trying to get the children by saying that he has kidnapped them. :rolleyes:

I was flooded with messages from people telling me to get out of Japan as quickly as possible. Screw my home, screw my husband, screw my life... Just take my kid and get out. I rolled my eyes at it, but others took it seriously and really ran off... Regardless of where they were.

It has all died down now, but I don't find myself feeling very forgiving toward those who ran screaming or those who ran groaning about inconveniences after the quake. And especially not those who looked to get their minutes of fame by giving idiotic interviews about how they felt their lives were in danger... When they lived in Shimane or the like.
I was contacted by the BBC and actually declined to give an interview because other than a bit of rocking daily life was not affected for me. I should have given it as they person they found instead was hysterical and packing to leave the country - from Kobe.

It just showed how much they considered Japan "home", and how quick they are to abandon it at the slightest hint of trouble.

People have flowed back to an extent now, but for a brief period of time I felt very very much like a special minority. I also made a ton of money taking on translation jobs for all those companies whose translators quit with no notice and fled. I hope all of those contracted workers never find a decent position again. Seriously, you don't just hop on a plane and leave your company in a bind because you are scared of... something that isn't even close to you.

I wonder where those people who left got their news and information from. Looking back at it, it appears to me the Japanese media were definitely not as alarmist as the "western" media, opting for a "more facts than conjecture" approach and maybe not reporting the news on a timely manner before they got all the information needed. The western media was all about ratings, fear-mongering, and exaggerations. I can't see the Japanese media being so alarmist than to suggest foreigners to "up and leave" as the people appear to have done. If it was because of family pressure from outside Japan, then they heeded warnings from people who didn't know what was going on or have no geographic sense of Japan.

I'm glad you were able to reap the rewards of being who you are and taking those jobs from the companies left in a bind. Perhaps it may be harder for them to find translators in the future and maybe they'll be more discriminating when handling applications.

I think it depends on the reason. If you left Japan because your electricity went out (which can happen in a thunderstorm) then that's pretty silly. If you were traveling with your job (like as an IT consultant working with another company) and your family wanted you to come back home, and your children were crying for you, or your company made you come back (etc., etc.,) then I should think your reason was genuine.

But if you abandoned Japan because you were scared your own @$$ would get hurt, then that's pretty shameful. What kind of mom would leave their children behind in a foreign country because she was scared for herself? Usually moms are concerned with getting their children out of the country first...

I recorded a program (DVR) that came on TV a few months ago that showed live footage from the earthquake that many people had taken. It was extremely sad, but it also showed how the Japanese teamed up together. A boy (I'm presuming a teenage boy) was video taping the earthquake, and started screaming, "Okaasaaannnn!!!!" and saying they had to leave immediately. They ran outside onto the street, and his mom started crying, and he held onto her while still filming. Another man was standing on a hill, and he was screaming, "Haiyaku!" (spell check) while people were coming out of their houses. He wouldn't leave until everyone came out and started walking up; he knew a tsunami was coming.

Thank you for this reminder. I know people who were forced to come home by their exchange program. It wasn't their fault they flooded the airport. There were surely thousands of them.

Right. The entire foreign student body at NUFS in Nagoya were dispatched home over the course of a week. That's more than 600 people alone. Never mind temporary workers there on business, holiday makers and so on.

French citizens, I think, were recalled by their government, some American universities told students that their insurance and student policies stated that in cases where national emergency was declared they had to pull them back home just in case, and by that point roughly over half the student body was leaving so NUFS pulled the plug for that year's programme. Besides, they had probably other concerns like their native student body to look after.

Since I've never been a part of a major natural disaster I can't be sure with how I'd react but if I was in a foreign country I think I would want to go home. I'm stuck in California for a couple more years but if the big earthquake beats my departure date, you will see me on the first plane out. Not really a paranoia thing but a comfort of being surrounded by family thing.

That's quite an extreme way of putting it.

extreme way
 

Perhaps, he dislikes cowards and that's his right. Nothing strange.

perhaps he dun like foreigners ?

I don't really feel either way about students or people here on short trips cutting things short to head home... The people who I found myself disgusted (a bit strong a term, but "disappointed" would be too weak) by were those who had full fledged lives here... Or who left their jobs and responsibilities at the drop of a hat - often giving little to no notice. Months after things settled down, I found myself encountering countless complaints from those who had just hopped on a plane. They were coming back and demanding their jobs back - and crying discrimination when companies weren't so willing to trust them again.
I even received nasty threats from a translator who had left his job with zero notice a few days after the quake, right in the middle of an intensive project. He was very very angry that I had taken his high-paying translation job, and that the company was refusing to pay him vacation pay because they had to pay me to do the job he completely abandoned. (Seriously. He ran off and didn't even email the company until a week later.)

To me, it seemed that the people who were distant from the disaster but who still packed up and left ASAP were looking for an excuse to get out of Japan... And they found a convenient one.

Because you would have exactly been one of those people.

when a tropical storm hit our place, I was away, in my workplace... It was the 1st to hit us so no one expected the damage... It was disastrous, I left the work place and reached early in the morning second day... The image is still vivid in my mind, as if it's happening right now. I live in a small town surrounded by mountains with one great, 7km long valley as a way in and out... It was full of water and people heading the same direction, out.
People of all age and gender walking in one direction, all with the same expression of fear, sadness and wonder all mixed up. it was the only choice for most of them really, and some are helping out... for me when I got there, I wanted them to evacuat all the old, the young, women and disabled... I wanted only the men the capable ones to stay... But most of the old men and women didn't want to leave, they were clinging on the walls that they were bourne into... I told my grandfather to go stay in my aunts place in a town that was less damaged and he was " and whom do you think will take care of these ruins"...
there are people who think that they can contribute and be handy in such situations, and there are others helpless or cowardly or even selfish... we are humanbeings after all

Crime60 - your example doesn't really apply to this situation.
Why? Because there were very few foreigners in areas that actually suffered. No one would come close to blaming them for evacuating. That would be silly.

Most of those who left Japan were far far away from the actual disaster areas. Many were so far that there was no way it could affect them in any way whatsoever. I seriously felt like slapping some of the foreigners all to ready to give interviews about the horror and terror... When they were further away from it that I was. (The house shook long enough to wake me from a nap, but not strong enough to actually make me do much other than check the earthquake info via cell phone. There was *absolutely nothing* that affected my quality of life, let alone my safety, during the time afterward. )

It honestly seemed that a very large chunk of the foreign community... Or rather, English speaking expats in particular... Were receiving their news solely from overseas sources without bothering to so much as look outside their doors. When there were reports of people dying in the streets of Tokyo (never happened, but it was a sensational report that could get viewers), foreign residents up and fled for safety. Instead of correcting relatives who cried that they were all going to die, even if they were on the other side of the country, they rushed and left the country.

I don't think anyone expected people in areas that were seriously hit to stay around. Or even in areas moderately hit. If you need to evacuate, you had might as well head abroad if you have the option - staying with family in another country is better than hopping around in hotels in Japan.
It is the people who did the equivalent of people living in Washington leaving the US because of an earthquake in southern California that leaves me rolling my eyes.

I don't know. I don't even think it was the leaving itself that irritated me - to each his own. It was the whole attitude of the affair, and the hate directed at those who didn't choose to leave at the time... And the runoff worry that any English speaking expat would jump up and leave at the slightest hint of trouble. It was also a great chance for a lot of people to air their true feelings about Japan, with racism showing up that reminded me of the type of petty idiocy I experienced being an international student in a Japanese high school that didn't hate Japan. (From other exchange students)

I suppose it is something you would have had to be involved in to really understand. There was even a Facebook support group for those who were choosing to stay. It was really a fight against fear-mongering western media that had gone entirely out of control, and groups of fleeing expats that wanted to get support for abandoning jobs and responsibilities by basically lying about what it was like (and their hatred for those who were calling them out on it by staying here and saying that, no, half of Japan was not in ruins and where they lived didn't even so much as shake.)

i remember there are some expat from singapore who refuse to leave until today. i think they were not very far from from the actual disaster areas. i asked them why they not leaving like the rest of foreigner..they say "lives still have to carry on and work still need to be done".

Nyororin, we do have expats who are making a living in my town, they got affected too... but unlike what happens in Japan, most of them decided to stay and help out, maybe because there was no big issue like a nuclear disaster in the horizon after the cyclone, I don't know, but they stayed and helped and we are back... But in such situations like what happened there, sometimes you have to cool you head and look at the greater picture,,,(Bad people leaving), a nation as great as Japanese nation, should not relay on such people to get the best of it when in peace... WITH ALL RESPECT TO THE LOST ONES(may those souls r.i.p), THE AFFECTED, AND THE LOVERS of this nation, consider it a natural cleanout...

Please excuse my poor expression, no offense meant.

That's awful Nyororin, I can't believe you got threatened. What a horrible person. I agree with you that the actions of those sorts of people is really offensive. That woman who ditched her kids is just appalling.

It just bothers me when people go on about ALL the foreigners leaving and all being from that situation. A few of my friends I mentioned who'd been at NUFS got some backlash from a few people for coming home, which was vastly unfair and I've met people since August who've had grief and complaints from people about being 'returning fly-jin', who've not been to Japan before.

You make a good point... While I don't know anyone *personally*, I know of a lot more people who stuck around up in Tohoku to help out than who bolted.

Most of the drop everything and run people were in big cities - Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Kobe, etc. Most of the people I know of who were in Japan long term and who were in the affected areas really were in Japan for the long haul and didn't jump and run as soon as they could.

But really, it was the attitude that left the bad taste in my mouth. Those of us who didn't flee when given this "great excuse", as it was frequently worded, were ruining it for everyone else. The fact that we were staying and not in horrific danger might make them look bad for quitting and running - and ruined their chances of getting special treatment. It was that attitude that was ridiculous.

It's kind of stupid to judge them when they didn't even know what information to depend on in terms of radiation dangers and what not. Rumours had been circling around at the time that the Japanese government was just trying to cover up the scale of the disaster.

They had the option to leave because they had another home to go to. The Japanese people probably didn't stay because they like Japan MORE than the foreigners, it's just that the Japanese people don't have another home to go back to.

what stupid is to put people's lives in stake just to protect your own reputation... and for people who lived under the shade of a government, they should trust it... unless they experienced something bad from it, (which should make them leave when they were in peace, in the 1st place) don't you think?!!

So... Because they didn't actually take the time to check into the actual situation, and to stop reading sensational media and find facts......

They should be excused for ditching their responsibilities? I don't think so. It was childish and immature.

Even if there was no real information, there was a better way to go about it. I don't care what is happening, a responsible adult doesn't run away from their responsibilities. Especially when they don't even live close to the danger.

Seriously, there is no sympathy from me for those living far far from Tohoku who dropped everything and ran, leaving companies in a bind, bills unpaid, etc. I have an acquaintance whose full time job now is sending out translated letters trying to get people who up and ran to pay the bills and such that they left behind conveniently when they ran.

And I am even more disgusted those who tried to come back afterward like nothing ever happened and who complained of discrimination when they couldn't get their jobs back.

This has unpleasant runoff for all foreigners in Japan. I have found it harder to get translation projects as companies are still worried about being left unable to finish because a foreign translator up and left with no notice.

claims
 

So, they even tried to demand their lost jobs back as well as good treatment from managers?:eek: True heroes, huh!:D

Definitely not everyone, of course...
But more than a handful of people. Out of the companies I ended up helping when they lost their translators, two of them came back later... And one of them demanded their job back and expected understanding.
Around the net, for a while there it certainly wasn't hard to find people posting for advice about making their employers give them vacation pay and their jobs back, etc... And about how racist it was not to be "understanding" about the whole thing.

I am not talking about English teacher level jobs, but rather higher up expat positions. The type of people who could afford to just hop in a cab and go to the airport.

fark them !!! kick them out

I wonder if those companies can revoke the visas they gave those people. Or if they have a "permanent resident" visa, just not hire them back? What rights do the companies have in "job abandonment" cases? If I were to be absent for more than two days without an explanation, I'd be considered "abandoning my job" and my employer could legally fire me. Who gives a crap what the expats think about the Japanese in this case. And why on earth is it considered racist? Because it was the gaijins who left?

This leaves me with sickening feeling inside. I know it has nothing to do with tourists who may go there in the future, but I wonder how the Japanese people perceive those who leave at the drop of a hat. And these people picked Japan as somewhere to work and live. One has to take the bad with the good, right? I know enough Japanese geography to know that if it were office workers in Tokyo or Osaka, then they are cowards. I apologize for this, it just makes me angry....

I really don't know what the companies could or did do in response. I would imagine that the majority who left with little or no notice lost their jobs.
There was a huge wave of people leaving, which left a massive vacuum - I was able to take on a huge number of high paying translation gigs because companies were desperate... Then there was a flow of people coming in (or trying to come in), both new people and those returning, looking for jobs.

I do know that the companies I worked for were very edgy about trusting another foreign employee, and one of them even had their replacement translator decide to run off on them... Most of them have replaced their translators with native Japanese translators instead of native English speakers. I wouldn't be surprised to see the quality of Japanese to English translated manuals and technical documentation has gone down as a result.

I am and was not looking for a long term position so don't know exactly how things have changed, but I hear that a lot of places have changed their contracts.

I believe that the expectation of special treatment is linked with the strength of numbers. Everyone was leaving, so I left too - why punish me for something all us foreigners were doing? But, then again, I have not spoken in depth with anyone who was part of the drop and run group.

Oh, and you are right - it was, from my understanding, workers in Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka who made up the majority. Fukuoka. It really stuns me. An excuse I saw given was that Fukuoka sounds like Fukushima, so there was extra panic there.

It makes me incredibly mad though because their choice to drop and run HAS affected me. It is now MUCH harder to find freelance work as a translator/interpreter - everyone is choosing not to take any risks and stick with native Japanese translators, even if the quality suffers. Having a fair translation in the hand is better than an excellent translation in the suitcase of a foreigner on a plane home.